


Lenore H McCoy

by KittyonCRACK



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fem Bones, Female McCoy - Freeform, Genderbend, female bones, genderbender, genderbent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 11:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11104086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyonCRACK/pseuds/KittyonCRACK
Summary: Lenore H McCoy had it all, but then her world was stolen and all she had were her bones. Fem!Bones Bones/Spock. Why did I make Leonard female? Sometimes I just wish certain characters were female. Like Bones, Matt Murdock, Neville Longbottom, Robin Hood. Not sure why... I just do. So directly from my musings is this stuff





	1. Prologue

Lenore H. McCoy had spent the last few weeks drinking. She had it all at the beginning of last month then it all went to shit. She had been promoted, had a husband, been pregnant... then it all vanished.

She came home to her and Neil's apartment after a double shift, which should have been a triple but she was relieved due to her condition. She was excited to tell him she was pregnant. She had decided to wait until after the first trimester to tell him why she had suddenly kicked drinking to the curb when she had opened her door and discovered a shirt thrown on the ground in their living area and had rolled her eyes at his sloppiness and continued to way to the bedroom before she noticed something passing through the dining room: a bra that was most assuredly not hers slung onto one of the chairs surrounding the table. Her chair, but not her bra.

She swallowed hard before continuing down the hallway, praying it wasn't true while the back of her mind screamed at her to leave and don't look back. The bedroom door was open and well known grunts and moans were accompanied by unknown soft sighs and words of encouragement.

Lenore stopped in front of the bedroom doorway, eyes closed before opening them to a sight that made her sick to her stomach before choking out a sob and slapping her hand over her mouth as the two adulterers jerked apart, knowing they had been caught.Neil and her best friend Sarah; what a mother fucking cliché.

She stumbled away from the door and down the hall, the two of them following after her, calling for her to stop and listen to what she was sure would be a heartfelt explanation of their actions. She ignored them and ripped open the door and stepped out to take the stairs. She couldn't wait for the elevator and hear their voices. a hand grabbed her arm after she had flung open the stairwell doors as she reached the steps. She jerked away. Her jerking away was the worst thing she could have done.

In a moment of abject horror she realized she was falling and had covered her stomach the best she could, knowing the concrete steps would be immensely unforgiving and she was right. The last thing she remembered before the black was the pain in her abdomen, at the base of her spine, and the blood dripping down her face.

When she had awoken two days later it was to a flat stomach with no bump or swelling and her coworker, an Andronian named Dr. Thy'Lan standing over her, her dominate hand clasped in the blue aliens smaller one.

She heard it all. The same information she knew from the instant she had woken up. The fetus had been removed. Her baby girl was no longer in her. Johanna was dead.

Neil tried to visit her and had gotten a plate of shitty hospital food thrown at him. Sarah had tried to apologize and had been met with silence.

Lenore had called for a divorce, arranged a funeral, and resigned from the hospital the same day she was discharged. Neil and her had met twice, once with their attorneys present and papers already drawn up. The only things she kept were her own savings account, her grandmother's cross, and her medical books. 

Neil had looked remorsefully at her during the three hour process, but she knew it was simply in longing to the daughter they had been tried so long for which lead to the second time they had met. Lenore had a tombstone carved for her daughter to put in the McCoy family plot and had passed him after she left four hours after it had been placed. 

So now it was a little less than a month later with her savings account and depleting due to drinking and she made the dumbest decision that would define the rest of her life: she decided to join Starfleet. After all, he had taken her world from her; all she had left were her bones.


	2. Meet and Greet

Why the fucking hell did Lenore think Starfleet would be a good idea. She had aviophobia and Starfleet was kinda fucking operated in the air. Space too but basically since solid ground was very rare during the mandatory five year expedition her fear would still be prevalent. How the hell did she rope herself into this?

She ducked into the bathroom of the shuttle, not wanting to have a panic attack in front of all the snot-nosed cadets who didn’t have a clue what horrible things space held. They were probably thinking glory and knowledge while she thought about the unknown deadly knowledge and all the possible diseases one could discover. She took a swig of whiskey and put her flask away before going to wash her face when a woman threw the door open and glared at Lenore as though she had personally called her mama a bucktoothed pig that screeched like an owl and slobbered like a hound. 

“Ms, it is time for you to take a seat.”

“I have a seat,” Lenore gestured to the toilet, “in here. All nice and cozy where I can’t see outside and have no urge to chuck up my cookies all over that nice Starfleet uniform so please let me be and go bother some other poor soul.”

The woman pulled her lips into a mockery of a smile “No. Now you need a doctor. Let’s go.”

“Dammit woman, I told you people I am a doctor!” I growled at her as she pulled me out of the tiny stall I had hunkered down in.

“You need to take your seat now.”

“I have aviophobia, that means a fear of dying in something that flies.” Lenore lectured.

“Sit down or I will make you sit down.” 

Lenore glared at her and took a seat next to another person dressed as a civilian and turned to the kid who looked about her age give or take a few years and smelt more like a bar then she did, “I might throw up on you.” 

He gave her a charming smile that had put Lenore at ease until the idiot opened his mouth, “I think these things are pretty safe.”

Lenore gave him a sharp glance, her brown eyes sharper than that of a hawk, “Don’t pander to me kid,” the kid started spluttering, “one tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. A solar flare might pop up and cook us in our seats and wait till your pretty self is sittin’ with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you’re so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleedin’. Space is a disease wrapped in danger after darkness and infinite silence.”

“Well, I hate to break it to you but Starfleet operates in space.” The kid said, looking like he was trying to stifle a laugh.

“Yeah, well I got nowhere to go. The damned ex took everything and all I have left are my bones.”

The blue eyes brightened up when they realized McCoy was unattached, “Jim Kirk, do you really think I’m pretty?” He asked with a wink.

“Lenore McCoy, and pretty damned annoying for a toddler.”

Kirk smiled and McCoy would soon learn to never trust the bastard when he smiled.


	3. Pain and Gain

Jim had been a pain in Lenore’s side since that damned shuttle ride. Lenore hadn’t even thrown up on the bastard but he seemed to make it his personal mission to harass her every damned moment of every damned day even before they had realized they would be sharing a dorm room. At least when he had a new conquest she would get a few hours or, if he was particularly lucky, meaning she was lucky enough to get a whole night alone.

Jim, as much as she hated to admit to herself, heaven forbid if she ever voiced it out loud, became her best friend much to her surprise. Not like she could make friends with the other students who would ever only gossip about love and lust. Lenore was mentally too old for that shit and done with the idea of ever finding love again. She had loved Neil and he had loved her and look where that had fuckin’ got her. No fuckin’ where but with an ex who claimed he still loved her and it was a mistake and her fault for always working and a tendency to open a bottle more often than not with only her patients’ lives prevented her from becoming a full-fledged functioning alcoholic. She pulled double shifts in medical after her classes and on weekends to fill her mind with anything but thoughts of her life before Starfleet. 

Her reputation became legendary. The one doctor at their hospital that would make you feel like even more of a dumbass for getting sick or breaking something than you did when you came in. Her bedside manner for those who would hit unwantedly on the staff, male and female alike, made what had happened to land them into medical look like child’s play. In fact the majority of nurses preferred to work with her than other doctors due to McCoy’s sheer reputation making many a face would whiten in fear. She was ruthless with hypos, especially with Jim once she found out that he had never really been to a hospital for more than a few checkups and was allergic to quite a bit of food. During their second month at Starfleet she ordered a full test of the blood she drew to go against all known foods and medications before doing a body scan and froze, realizing that he had many broken bones. Too many for one who’s file was so short in the system. She narrowed her eyes and looked at him, and him not meeting her eyes for the first time since they met more than confirmed what her suspicions were.

She didn’t say anything of it though, knowing that stubborn jackass would keep tightlipped about it until he felt like it, and jammed him viciously with a hypo to let him know nothing between them had changed, making him tense up partially in pain but mostly in shock before he hopped off her table and walked out of medical whistling a jaunty tune. It wasn’t until she got back to their room at two in the morning she found him clutching a bottle of whiskey like his life depended on it and simply said five simple words that she knew he had never said out loud before, “My stepfather wasn’t the nicest.”

That was the first time they had cried together. He had shared every birthday uncelebrated, every hit, every broken bone, every harsh word of disappointment and she told him of her three greatest failures: her father, her marriage, and her not being able to protect the life she had treasured so and named and dubbed female even before the pregnancy was far enough along she didn’t know the gender. By that time they were so dehydrated there were no tears left to cry and hiccups were too quick and numerous for words. That was the first and only day they missed class, instead collapsing from sheer emotional exhaustion more so than physical onto Lenore’s bed, Jim’s head on her breast and her hand stroking his hair as they both drifted off. 

Lenore had woken to their positions flipped. Jim had been awake longer than her, looking up at the ceiling and keeping an arm wrapped around her back to keep her from rolling off of his chest, his other moving in a slow and constant motion, stroking her own hair. Her mouth was parched and her eyes crusted but he smiled at her as though nothing was wrong. It became tradition three days a year to practice what happened that night over again: the anniversary of her father’s death, the anniversary of Jim’s father’s death and subsequently his birthday, and the anniversary of Johanna’s death. 

They had other, much happier traditions annually as well. Bones would get Jim an elaborate gift the day after his birthday, never wrapped so neither would have to call it what it was, and Jim would always mail various animal turds to Neil the days after she would hit the bottle heavier than normal while looking at her ultrasound although he didn’t think she knew about it.

They were as thick as thieves and each other’s closest confidant although she would gut anyone who voiced it. Many thought that they were dating and that Lenore was strictly asexual who wanted Jim to go around and fuck random people so as not to get attached to anyone else, which made Lenore’s blood boil. She was blissfully ignorant of the rumors too until one day she had to treat a Vulcan since his usual doctor was unavailable.Also Starfleet was forcing him to go since he had burns on his right hand from having to program some whatever test and an electrical output had not in anyway been put up to code, making them liable for damages.

He had stared at her as she observed his hand carefully before grabbing a cream she needed for his hand and a few hypos to prevent infection and to regenerate the growth of skin on his palm. He was lucky the burn was only between his pointer finger and thumb, leading down a little ways to his wrist.

“Now look, I know hardly anything about Vulcans but are y’all basically anatomically the same as humans?” She asked as she started prepping her items, unnerved slightly by the silence, used to meek chitter chatter from her patients who were trying to make her like them and not beret them for their dumbassary .

“There are many anatomical differences, the first of which our blood is copper base rather than iron which is why our blood is green rather than red. We have a slower heart rate than humans averaged out at 36 beats per minute and as such our blood is pumped though our bodies slower which is why we prefer warmer climates to humans. Our-”

Lenore turned around and raised an eye brow before cutting him off, “Anything I need to know specifically about your kind before I treat your hands?”

The Vulcan shifted, brows furrowing “We..have more nerves running through our hands than humans.”

Lenore nodded, “Okay, I’ll be gentle,” before scooping a good amount of cream into one and grabbing his with her other, making him jump out of shock and try to pull back out of her firm but gentle grip “this is going to be cold.”

He raised both eyebrows and looked down in shock at his hand, she guessed the cream must feel much colder to him than it did to her since he had a green tinge to his cheeks and looked like he wanted to squirm out of his seat and his leg started to barely twitch and the only reason she took note of it was since it was directly below their joined hands. He turned his head from her to look in the direction of the clock on the wall.

“So twitchy, you in a hurry? Got a hot date waiting for you?” she asked after a glance towards the clock confirmed her stomachs suspicion that it was close to dinner time.

His eyebrows rose so high she almost thought they would disappear into, or at least touch, his dorky bowl cut.

“My name is Spock, not twitchy and I…do not have a hot date. Do you have a date with your significant person?”

Lenore glanced up at him in confusion, “I don’t date, so no.”

One eyebrow lowered, his face other than that remained impassive; “I was told 7 minutes and 48 seconds ago that you were in a relationship.” 

Lenore threw her head back and laughed as she let his hands go to clean off hers and grab a hypo, “Who the hell told you that?”

The Vulcan tilted his head minutely before replying, “The information that you are in a romantic relationship that will only hurt you emotionally with the cadet waiting for you outside and that he is a cheating offspring of an unmarried couple who waives his conquests in front of you came from the nurse that lead me to this room after they informed me that you would be my doctor they spoke of that and the fact that you might be violent.”

Lenore felt her eye twitch before stabbing the Vulcan in the neck, “Well you were told wrong, I need to give them more work so they won’t take a damned cow patty and turn it into a pie.”

Both of the eyebrows went up again, “What is a cow patty and how did they turn it into a pie?”

Lenore stared at him in disbelief, “How long have you been around humans?”

“Since I was born. I fail to see how that question answers my inquiry.”

Lenore shook her head and hypoed him once more, “If you don’t know after this long you don’t know bub.” 

She finished typing up instructions then sent them to his file and email, “If you experience any discomfort and if there is not a full range of motion and or senses in the area within six hours return to medical for further examination and treatment, its mostly superficial damage so it should be totally healed in four. Don’t be active with it before then and you should be right as rain, now if you excuse me I have a nurse to lecture.”

Lenore left the very confused Vulcan who was apparently named Spock in the room to go hunt down that lying son of a shit Jackson when she ran into Jim.

“Woah, Bones, where in the world are you going on a rampage?” 

She narrowed her eyes, “Did you know people think we’re dating and I’m enough of a pushover to let you constantly cheat on me and that you supposedly leave me emotionally distraught?”

Kirk winced and shifted, “Not in so many words, everyone who brings it up though I say no!”

Lenore smacked him over the side of the head before latching onto his ear and dragging him down to her level, “And just how long has this lil peace of horse shit been spread around the garden?”

Jim looked to the side, “About two months into us being at Starfleet.”

Lenore narrowed her eyes before letting go of his ear, throwing her hands up, “What the ever loving hell is wrong with these people? I thought the whole idea a man and a woman not being able to be just friends is a damned antiquated notion from the 21st century and that’s why Starfleet is able to have coed dorm rooms without people getting into a damned fuss about it!”

Jim shrugged, “What can I say? People think I’m that irresistible.”

Bones snorted, “Or I’m that damned desperate.” 

“Well, go clock out, tonight is bar night, you can terrorize the cadets and nurses about the rumors later.” Jim said smirking.

Lenore rolled her eyes but agreed.

Only because she wanted to get drunk off her ass and make Jim be the babysitter for once.


	4. Short and Somewhat Sweet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Ah isn’t just a sound of surprise or understanding. It can also be the way “I”, as in reference to oneself, sounds when one has a particularly strong southern drawl. I myself slip into it when I’m pissed off or drunk, so I wrote “I” by writing “Ah” for when Lenore has her moments. Why have I not done this before with her lecturing Jim? He just annoys the crap out of her, doesn’t piss her off.

Lenore was dressed in her favorite little black dress, her favorite because it was sleek and had pockets, and for once did her hair and makeup before going out and felt like she looked like a million bucks based on peoples reaction when she walked by them. Cat calling could be pretty vulgar but she was experiencing more dropped jaw than she had in a while. It helped that she had a pretty good burn in the back of her throat and flushed cheeks and was working on her third Old Fashion after the mandatory shot of tequila her and Jim always took to kick start the night.

Jim, the devious bastard, had followed some Orion girl and disappeared into the crowd of people, leaving her at the bar nursing her drink and tinkering with the idea of finding a warm body to take pleasure in before rolling her eyes at her own thoughts. She was starting to sound too much like the damned kid and the romance novels that she took guilty pleasures in reading. Plus, even if she did go to sleep with someone they and the whole of Starfleet on base would think she was an adulterer. If only they fuckin knew.

She tipped back the remainder of her drink, texted Jim to get some milk on his walk of shameless shame, and moved to get up and use the restroom before returning to her room when a large cadet stepped in front of her and she looked up at him in annoyance, raising an eyebrow. “Can I help you?”

“Want to dance?” He asked, inching closer to her, making her nearly pass out with how heavy his cologne was.

“No thank you.” She said, quickly stepping over to the side and set her eyes on the restroom, eager to use it and get the hell out of there.

A hand landed on her arm and pulled her back, “Come on honey, just a dance.”

She glanced over her shoulder after shaking the heavy hand off, “Since you didn’t understand no thank you how about a hell no? Got that through your skull ya pinhead?”

His face turned a rather disturbing shade of red, “Now listen here you little whore, I asked you nicely and you should just be grateful that someone is willing to pay attention to you.”

Lenore reared back, grabbed her glass and narrowed her eyes at the creep, “Listen here you fucker,” she hissed in anger, “ya not God’s fucking gift to mankind and no, Ah shouldn’t be grateful that ya can’t take no fo’ an answer and are acting like a goddamned jackass and callin’ me a whore. You got that princess pissy pants? Now back the fuck up ’fore Ah call security and if ya even think about approaching anyone else in that same dipshit manner Ah will make sure ya suffer worse than anyone has before.”

The cadet’s face turned an even deeper red as she was talking and drew his hand back, ready to backhand her and Bones tightened her hold at the top of the glass before a hand appeared on creep-o’s shoulder startling him before his eyes rolled up and he fell over, totally unconscious.

Lenore blinked at the man’s slumped over form a few times before looking up, eyes widening in shock, “Mr Spock.”

He nodded to her, “Doctor McCoy, I trust you are well?”

She put her glass down, “Well, since ya saved my face from getting’ what Ah guess would be a pretty dark shiner Ah’m right as rain sugah.”

Spock merely blinked at her before nodding to security as they took the disgusting self-entitled prick and turning back to her, “Would you like to press charges against him?”

She looked at the waste of space while considering, “Yeah, he shoul’ know ta leave a girl the hell alone after being told ‘no.’ Ah mean, it’s a pretty damn straightforward answer.”

“I agree. I believe it to be the most concise answer a human can give.” Spock nodded to her before tilting his head, “I shall accompany you to the prescient.”

“Oh,” Lenore sobered up real quick as she scratched her head, “sorry but you really don’t have to do that. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Spock stared at her, eyes unwavering. “It was pointed out to me a few months ago while humans are emotional they prefer to be around someone they know. Since I do not see anyone accompanying you I am offering since you already know me by my medical chart and I know you about your reputation and the information you yourself gave while treating me… Although I still do not understand how bovine feces can become an edible dessert.”

Lenore snorted as she covered her mouth to try and prevent her laughter to come spilling out, “Uh, excuse me.” She coughed to clear her throat, “Well if you put it that way thank you for your offer and I accept your company. As for your confusion about what I said last time, it’s an expression…sort of a metaphor for life. My saying to turn a cow patty into a pie is my way of saying that they’re taking a falsehood or something that they assumed and telling it as truth.”

Spock nodded after a moment of consideration as they started to make their way out of the bar, “I understand. It seems as though you were wrong.”

Lenore raised her eyebrow, “Excuse me?”

“That I would not know what you mean. You explained, therefore now I know.” He opened the door and stiffly gestured for Lenore to go out first to the police car that was parked in front of the bar.

“You’re still not gonna understand all expressions. All y’all Vulcans take things way too seriously and some stuff only makes since ‘cause it’s been ‘round for so damn long. Also if you’d been exposed to humans all your life I’d think you’d have the skill to decipher any idioms they used cause of common sense.”

The Vulcan stayed quiet for quite a while as she spoke to the police; brows furrowed and face in an expression, if on anyone else Lenore would assume he was suffering from constipation, not thinking about whatever was going on in his robot mind.

When Lenore was finished speaking with Officer Mathis, Spock tilted his head towards a 24/7 coffee house, “It has been told to me before that when humans need to…relax, they sometimes prefer a warm beverage. Would you like some tea?”

Lenore knew that Jack and Jill’s Coffee Hut had the best coffee around but they didn’t exactly serve sweet tea, “Sorry, but I don’t drink tea… If you’d be willing to sit through me getting a coffee that would be pretty nice.”

Spock tilted his head yet again and waited for Lenore to be next to him until he started walking down the street to the coffee shop. They walked in silence, with the music from the bar becoming a dull thump behind them and the crowds laughs faded out. 

They sat together in the shop, the quite chatter of tired students cramming or laughing after a night out washing over them as they sat, Lenore practically moaning when she finally got her coffee and did moan when she finally tasted it.

Spock raised an eyebrow at her but she ignored the pointy eared bastard and kicked off her heels, putting her feet up on a free seat and sighed, sinking back into her chair.

“Why do people wear high heels if they serve no important function?”

Lenore cracked open an eye, not realizing she had closed them, and focused in on him, “To make ourselves look more attractive to potential mates is the short version. Longer version is it makes our calves and butt look good, gives us a hell of a workout, makes us feel better about ourselves and gives us a weird since of empowerment even if our feet start to bleed at the end of the night and we’re in a hell of a lot of pain.”

Spock blinked, “That seems impractical.”

Bones shrugged, “That’s humanity for you.”

They were back to sitting in silence after that until their drinks were finished, grabbed her heels and Spock finished walking her to her door. Without thinking she reached into her bra and pulled out her dorm key and unlocked the deadbolt and turned to say thank you and good night but Spock was looking off to the side, a deeper coloring of green on his cheeks and a decidedly awkward look on his face.

“Thanks for making sure I got home fine.”

Spock nodded, “Leaving you alone would have been illogical for your health.”

Lenore tilted her head, “Logical, illogical, who gives a damn? You’re a good person Spock… for a hobgoblin.” Lenore grinned wickedly and stepped inside her apartment, “You be safe walking yourself home and have a good night.”

She shut the door before he could respond and chunked her heels behind her as she wandered into her kitchen and ripped into the spaghetti and garlic bread her and Jim made earlier before collapsing onto the couch and falling asleep.


	5. Pity Party Bullshit

Lenore woke the next day at some ungodly hour with a rather attractive trail of drool hanging out of her mouth, and a puddle of it on the pillow beside her. She wiped at her mouth, rolled to avoid the puddle of drool and cracked an eye open to see what it was that woke her up.

Jim was stumbling in muttering “Mouth breather? When the hell have I ever been a damned mouth breather? Am I really that loud?”

“Yes,” Lenore groaned as she started to roll back over before remembering the puddle and stopped on her back, wincing. The couch was good for one side or the other but not the whole back side.

“Bones?” Jim asked confused.

“Who else dumbass?” She yawned before sitting up and stretching.

“This is wrong, you’re supposed to be drunk or drinking still or have a man or woman in your arms!”

“Well if some asshole who said they would make sure I’d be safe while drinking actually did what they promised, maybe I wouldn’t have been sexually harassed by some drunken dipshit and spent my night talking to the police and being walked home by some Vulcan.” Lenore gripped, going into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

“What?” Jim yelped before running to the door and pounding on it while Bones washed her face, relieved at the fact her pours could breathe again.

“What?” She asked, reaching over with one hand to open the door as she grabbed her toner.

Jim rushed in, stinking of sex and tequila and grabbed her shoulders, turning her around and inspecting her head to toe, “Are you alright? What happened? Who’s the asshole that did it? I’ll beat their face in!”

Lenore rolled her eyes and grabbed his face, making him look from her body to her face, “Jim, I’m fine.” She smiled before narrowing her eyes and grabbing him by one of his ears, twisting, “I’m just mad at you for thinking with your dick, ya dick.”

Jim whined and rubbed his ear once she released it and went back to brushing her teeth. Cotton mouth was something she loathed just because of the amount of times Neal would wake her up as he would drunkenly stumble in after a night out with the guys and she’d wake up again earlier than she wanted to his god-awful breath. Plus it was an unpleasant experience anyways to wake up with a mouth tasting like shit and dryer than the Sahara.

“Bones, seriously, what happened?” Jim said once he remembered why exactly she had viciously twisted his ear.

Lenore sighed before spitting out the minty toothpaste and gargling her mouthwash. She led him to the kitchen where she got a glass of water and drank half of it before explaining what had gone on that night only a few minutes after Jim left, Jim looking more and more stricken the further along she got. Finally, by the end of it all they were in Bones’ bed, Lenore softly petting Jim’s back as he mourned his own failure to protect her and bemoaned the fact he had let ‘someone else’ in his life down again. 

It wasn’t until Lenore threatened to infect him with several well known viruses that Jim stopped his pity party bullshit and they lay there, quietly talking until they fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys! I’m sorry this chapter is so short but I felt like it ended naturally there and everything else I have typed up so far would be better off in the next chapter.


	6. A Small Leak Will Make a Great Ship Sink

Lenore was busy. Earlier that day she had participated in the Kobayashi Maru test for the second time with Jim, who had some strange obsession over the unbeatable obstacle; honestly, she figured it was due to the fact Jim excelled at everything and had always had flying marks besides that stupid test. After that shit show, and Jim’s whining, she worked a double shift.

She had just finished treating yet another dumbass cadet out of the masses. This one had been stupid enough to play a bit too much with a CO2 canister, a pvc pipe, liquid nitrogen and a lightbulb with his friends. Sadly that was one of the tamer incidents of the day and she was filling out the report on when there was a knock at her office door. 

“Come in if you have coffee or are on your deathbed. If not you can fuck off.”

There was silence and footsteps faded away from the door, she figured it was some dumb newbie or a someone who was going to add to her work load but realized today was not the day for that shit. She was on her final hour of her run and was ready to go home and pass out. If Jim tried to wake her to go out partying she’d hypo him to Hell and back.

She leaned back, stretching, hearing her back, neck and shoulders crack so much she wouldn’t be surprised if she couldn’t sit up on the first try next morning. She completed that file and closed it before rubbing her eyes tiredly and opening up the file of a cadet who had an adverse reaction to his allergy shot, which he got annually and had never had any negative affects before when her office door opened. She looked up; ready to rip into whoever came into her office but it was the Vulcan with a piping hot cup of coffee that still had steam coming off the top.

“Doctor McCoy, I was made aware that it is human custom to follow up with someone within a week of them experiencing distress.” He extended his arm, “Coffee?”

Bones eyed him before taking the bitter brew the hospital was famous for from his hand, her fingers brushing his briefly before she had captured the holy grail of drinks, taking a long drag before nodding to him, “Thank you, but I’m fine.” 

Spock raised an eyebrow as he slowly lowered his arm back to his side, obviously not buying it. He continued to stand and stare at her before Lenore rolled her eyes and gestured to the seat across her desk and she leaned back, waiting for him to sit down and hear whatever it was he had to say.

Spock failed to say anything though and made Bones huff in annoyance to herself before realizing he was trying to get her to talk but she had a saving grace: it was time for her to go home. “Well as invigoratin’ as this meeting has been,” Lenore drawled, her Georgia accent overpowering the annunciation she worked so hard to learn to avoid being mocked in med school, “ah have ta get goin’ as ahm off the clock an nah stickin’ ‘round for some idiot making me stay late.” She grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder as she put her pad in it before walking by the little green menace before throwing the door open, turning to wait for him to get the hell out of her office.

Spock stood, folding his hands behind his back, “Are you requiring nourishment?”

Lenore raised an eyebrow as she sipped her coffee and wondered if all hobgoblins were always so damned proper before swallowing, “Do ya mean ‘are you hungry’? Cause ah just finished an 18 hour day with a half a protein bar as my lunch, so yes, ah am.”

Spock walked past her, turning to face her again as she closed the office door after she chucked her cup in the recycling hatch, “Then it would be agreeable for us to dine together as we are both in need of nourishment. Do you find Indian cuisine agreeable?”

Lenore stopped short before turning to him with a cocked eyebrow, temper and annoyance subsiding at the thought of food, “I don’t have a problem with Indian.”

“Then we shall go.” Spock said, and Lenore gapped after him as he started to walk towards the elevator.

Lenore stared before following him, catching up as he stopped at the lift. What the crap had she just agreed to? Coffee after a crazy night was one thing but dinner? Was this a date? No, Lenore shook herself out of that train of thought, the one this she, and everyone else, did know about Vulcan’s, were they did not do anything frivolous. Lenore assumed that included dating. He must have been trying to find an efficient way to check up to see how she was actually doing while seeing to his own needs. He had to be told that it was normal to check up on someone, so he had probably been told ‘I’m fine’ was the nice human way of saying ‘I don’t want to talk about it, fuck off’ and that more interaction was needed to find out the truth.

The walk to Taz was filled with silence, which made Lenore want to just roll her eyes or shout at him to try and say something…but at the same time it was a nice change from Jim’s constant chatter.

They arrived and sat, Lenore awkwardly but Spock sat stoically as possible, looking so out of place in the brightly decorated space with tapestries and deity statues everywhere. 

“How has your week progressed after last Thursday’s incident? Structured as normal I presume.” 

Bones narrowed her eyes, what was this, the Vulcan way of asking have you freaked the fuck out yet?

“Only my sleep schedule has changed, but that’s to be expected at the end the first semester of the year. Sleep deprivation is common around finals time.”

Spock’s head tilted slightly to the left, eyes focusing in even sharper than his usual gaze, “That is not why you are losing sleep.”

Lenore met his gaze head on, unflinching. So what if she occasionally, every night Jim didn’t come home this week… four times, had nightmares of the worst case scenario on what could have happened? It’s not like it actually did. She just needed to be able to move past the fact that it happened and continue on with her life. It hadn’t affected her work or school so what did it matter?

Spock seemingly sighed, well, as much as a Vulcan could, “Do not let something inconsequential impair your health.”

Lenore glared, “You think I don’t know that? You don’t think I realize I’m being weak and stupid?”

“You are not weak by human standards, nor are you stupid. Fear is rational and what has allowed many species to survive. Fear is irrational only if it controls your emotions, which can make someone seem less intelligent than they are.”

Lenore snorted, “Sure, a robot like you would even have concept of emotions in your database.”

They placed their orders with the waiter before turning back to each other, Spock shifted before replying, almost in an uncomfortable like manner. “I am not a robot and I am able to understand emotions, just not the way humans use them. We are not purged of them but learn control, something that humans seem to greatly lack.”

Lenore snarled, “So ah am weak? Because ah don’t try to be mechanical like you?”

“That is inaccurate. I stated you are not weak. You are behaving as if you are weak because you let your emotions rule your mind. Logically if you had control of your emotions, you would not lose sleep over last week’s event. Something so small, if left unchecked, can cause a great deal of harm. You as a doctor should understand.”

Lenore choked back her anger. Logically, she knew he was right. Emotionally, she wanted to throat punch him.

They were silent the rest of their time in the restaurant, only staying long enough to finish their meal, and Spock commandeered the bill, claiming it was logical that only one pay to be time efficient, before exiting the restaurant.

Bones turned to face Spock, about to tell him goodbye when he cut in curtly, “I will walk with you to your living quarters.”

Lenore snapped her mouth shut before starting the walk back to the campus dorms. Spock walked beside her, hands behind his back. When they eventually reached her dorm, after an eternity of silence, she fished her key out of her bag with Spock looking on curiously. She entered and took a deep breath before turning. “Thank you for dinner and thank you for your comments. Good night.”

Spock tilted his head towards her in acknowledgement before turning sharply and walking away. Lenore shut the door and glared at it, as if it had personally offended her, before throwing her pad down and storming off to shower. She needed a shower with water to relax after that but the dorms only had sonic showers, which were not the best to stew in.

After the shower she stared at her reflection in the mirror before sighing, admitting defeat that she looked worse than she usually did after a long week. 

She wandered back out to the living room and collapsed on the couch before selecting a early 21st century show before relaxing back into the couch as she watched a woman sprout off about a Colombian hothead before slowly drifting off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Heyo! Sorry for the delay in updating! I know Spock is also a little OC in this chapter but since Vulcans take mental health and balance so seriously I figured it would be okay-ish


	7. An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Lenore was fed up. Jim had woken her that morning, excitedly reminding her that he had signed himself and her up for the Kobayashi Maru test yet again. Lord help her she wanted to punch his smug grin in the mouth when he quite literally used her sheets to roll her out of bed after she initially refused to get up. Now she was standing in the test room doing her best to stay awake as Jim insisted yet again to be called captain. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her screen, praying that they finish early enough for her to grab a greasy burger and fries before her shift. “Two Klingon vessels are entering the neutral zone and are locking weapons on us,” she drawled out, more focused on food until Jim said two words that signaled it would not be a good day for her.

“That’s okay.”

Lenore froze, before turning to face the nitwit, “That’s okay?” 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

Lenore gritted her teeth, knowing Jim was planning something stupid before continuing with the simulation, “Three more Kilngon warbirds decloaking and locking in on our ship.” She turned to face and challenge him, to see if he’d confirm her suspicions, her drawl thickening “I don’t suppose this is a problem either?”

“They’re firing captain.” Moses continued on with the simulation as he normally would, at least someone sounded worried.

“Alert medical bay to prepare to receive all crew members from the damaged ship.” Jim said flippantly. Maybe he only signed her up for this and was doing this as payback for that weekends round of hypos, not that he had actually done something.

“And how are we supposed to rescue them when we’re surrounded by Klingons, Captain?” Uhuara, a rather pretty girl that Jim had been trying to get with for ages asked snippily. Jim definitely wasn’t making any headway there.

“Alert medical.” 

That smug son of a bitch, “Our ships being hit, our shields are at 60 percent.” She said, annoyed at the sirens blaring.

“I understand,” Jim leaned back in his chair.

“Should we not fire back?” Bones gritted out, headache from the sirens and what she was sure to come rearing its ugly head, glaring at Jim, giving him one last out.

“No,” he bit into an apple and Bones wanted nothing more than to stab him in the neck.

“Of course not,” she muttered, wondering if it was lack of sleep from trying to finish all his classes extremely early on in the program or if he was drunk and that’s what made it seem like a good idea to him. She watched the scenes fizzle out, and everything reboot. Bones was going to find the most obscure diseases and their vaccines and slam Jim with every single one.

“Arm Photons, prepare them to fire on the Kilngon warbirds.”

“Yes sir,” Moses went into action.

Lenore just sat back, no point in trying to help the idiot now.

“Fire on all enemy ships. One photon each should do it, let’s not waste ammunition.” 

“Target locked and acquired on all warbirds: firing.” 

Lenore watched as Jim singlehandedly destroyed his entire academic career in one stupid test.

“All ships destroyed captain.”

“Begin rescuing the stranded crew. So, we managed to eliminate all enemy ships, no one on board was injured, and the successful rescue of the Kobayashi Maru is underway.” Jim bit into his apple.

Bones bit the inside of her lip to avoid screaming out in frustration. Jim, the stupid man child that he was, was going to get himself kicked out of the academy because of his Goddamned pride.

\---

She waited until they had left the test room and walked down the hall before she shoved Jim in an empty classroom and shut the door behind her “And what the ever lovin’ fuck was that bullshit Jimmy?” she snarled, grabbing his ear and twisting it.

Jim yelped and twisted his body, trying to ease the pressure on his appendage, “Come on Bones, you know I don’t believe in bullshit scenarios like that. Whoever designed that test just wants people to feel like a failure.”

“Or maybe whoever designed that test wanted to show the harsh reality of what could happen to those in Starfleet so that any kid who ain’t willin’ to die can decide to stay grounded or not after graduation and you know it!”

“Lenore! Be serious, we all know that test is the dumbest thing in the academy! We all know we could die while in Space. Sure, it may not be tangible when sign up but that test doesn’t make it more tangible that VR Gaming at home does! You know it’s a joke and if anything doesn’t strengthen morale but diminish the hopes that kids have!”

Lenore sighed and let go of Jim before rubbing her eyes and blinking, she may have been wrong but she thought she saw a certain pointy eared hobgoblin through the window on the door watching them. She must have been imagining since she was so tired.

“Jim, do you know what’s gonna happen? They’re gonna try to throw you out on your ass cause of cheating.” She crouched down and wrapped her arms around her knees sighing, “I know you’re a rebel rouser and a regular pain in the ass but couldn’t you have left this alone?”

Jim knelt beside her, petting her hair with one hand while mirroring her posture, “You know exactly why I couldn’t leave this test well enough alone.”

Lenore sighed, “I know.”

Jim stood and held his hand out to her, making her grumble and stand, wincing at the sound of her back and knees cracking, “Well, one thing’s for sure, if you get your ass expelled than you are not bunking in my room, which I could do without your snoring.”

“Hey! You’re the one that snores!”

Bones rolled her eyes and opened the door, “Whatever, like you don’t sound like a warthog. Now get moving, I would like to eat before going to work.”


End file.
